Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-06
DRUMMERS' LICENSE.
The Awkward Position in Which Judge
Wade's Decision Places Mon.
tana J0bberS.

Judge Wade's decision in the drummers'
license case at Helena on Friday was an
unpleasant surprise to those affected by the
license act. Without doubt the intention
was to benefit Montana trade, but the re-
suit is a statutory provision that fails OF
the object it was chiefly aimed at, and Incl
dentally shackles those whom. it was in
tended to free from competition. In other
words, it was aimed at the crow and hit
the pigeon. Several of our merchants seen
yesterday had scarcely enough words to
condemn the statute. But what can we
do?" said one OF our most prominent bust
ness men to The MINER representative.
1--WE are handicapped. l fail to see the con
s~titutionality OF a law that permits a man
from Chicago, st. Paul, or even Boise, to
go anywhere in this Territory and sell all
through Montana without let or hindrance,
and one OF my men, starting out from
Butte, has to pay $25 a month to do bust
ness for me in any county, besides paying
$500 a year T%erritorial license. We do
business in five-eighths of the counties in
Montana, and if a thing like this gets out,
as it is bound to do, it will materially in
jure Montana wholesalers in their efforts
to sell to the country merchants. Wecan't
expect an extra session to remedy such an
injustice as this. That's all buncombe.
l suppose we must endure it. It's no use
fighting it in the courts, as the law is per-
fectly legitimate, no matter how big an
outrage. But we can get round it by
opening a wholesale depot in Idaho some
where and sending u travelling men out
from there"
DO you think the principle OF taxing
drummers a sound one?"
. eyes, I do. For this reason: l have seen
merchant after merchant brought to bank
ruptcy by these drummers. These Eastern
drummers 20 to a small dealer-they' re all
diplomates, every one of them-cool. shave,
unscrupulous-and will say, I've just sold
So-and-so ..(mentioning some big firm he
hasn't been near) a line OF these goods, and
az l have only a few left I'll let you have
them on four months time at the same
figure If the merchant takes them he has
a bill to meet in four months, and by that
time he finds himself with just half the
amount sold, and he's got to skirmish
lively to meet the note. So he gets deeper
in the mire all the time, every time one OF
these fellows comes round, until b goes up.
Whereas if he had come to US when he
wanted a few of the same goods, he could
have bought just al his necessities de-
manded and we would have accommo-
dated him just as amply. We can stock
any country merchant out OF our retail
department-set him up in good shape
Then he can renew his stock here just as
we'll as he can from the Eastern drummer
and in smaller lots. The effect OF this de-
cision means ruin to perhaps hundreds OF
country merchants in Montana, whom
these Eastern pirates will unload heavily
on and swamp before the year is out. You
know their motto: Sell all you possibly
can and trust to luck to make it all right.
Mr.. James R. Boyce, Jr., was asked what
he thought about it. II haven't seen the
but it can have only one eftect-to
stop any wholesale business by Montana
houses. The fact is, it was only passed to
benefit a few men over in Helena who used
to control the wholesale trade and now
they've got badly left. The law has had a
boomerang effect. and it missed the mark
it was aimed at. There isn't much whole
sailing from here. l send out a wagon with
q line of samples occasionally to take in
places off the railroads where l can sell
sometimes one or two hundred dollars
worth to a man who COULDN'T ouy tnein
that way from Eastern drummers. It's an
to him and OF course we
he, eft by it. But il I've got to pay $25 a |
month in every county l do business in be-
sides $500 year Territoril l simply with
draw from the trade.
.Well do O think it fair to tax drum
mers at all?" WAS asked.
well. no: | don't. They're not much
use to us. We keep a buyer in the East
who sends us all we need. but occasionally
one comes along with new styles and the
10 test, patterns, or we run out of an article
and he has the very th,ng-we give him an
IL. 1rhevd don't really interfere with OR
merchants, as We all depend upon the retail
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